It's nothing new and something City Council has heard before. But city Budget Director Ken Koher told council one more time — the city needs

revenue.

"We have a liquidity crisis," he told council during a Monday budget session. "We don't have enough revenue to run this city as it stands today.

"It's not a puzzle. We need more rabbits in our hats and that (rabbit) is revenue."

Koher presented council with a general fund budget proposal of $18,280,874. He said the city is $1.152 million short to fund the budget requests.

"This is something you faced year after year," he said. "You always shorted the budgeted line items, and the money came in greater and we would get by. But (revenue) is not improving."

Koher said the city's general fund budget includes 75.8 percent in employee salaries and benefits including 34.5 percent for police and firefighter wages — that doesn't account for benefits, 18 percent for the remaining city employees and just a little more than 2 percent for elected officials.

With salaries and benefits, retirement and insurance premiums, utilities and debt payments, there is only 15 percent of the general fund that the more than $1.1 million shortfall can be cut from, he said.

The city's insurance premium jumped 17.35 percent and the workers compensation costs also have increased, he said.

Koher suggested a tax credit reduction and a street light and utility fee as a short-term solution to help fill the gap.

By moving the tax credit to 50 percent for city residents that work outside of the city, $1.3 million additional income tax can be collected, he said.

The street light and utility fee — which would be billed on the city's sewer bills — would generate about $330,000 per year. Koher said 10 percent of that money would be used for upgrades to LED lighting and pole replacement with the remainder going to the general fund.

Koher said spending is being controlled at a pretty decent rate, but the city needs about $18 to $19 million to operate. The revenue is not there.

"We are down to the point in time where there is no more give," he told council members.

Councilman Ed Lewis, R-Ward 6, noted several departments were showing significant increases in their budget over previous years.

He said the law director's budget was $75,000 more than the previous budget and the bailiff line item in courts was $514,000 in 2014. In previous years, the budget was $425,000.

"We're saying (this) is bare bones," he said. "I just found $150,000 and I have only looked at three pages of the budget."

Lewis said a year ago, council stood their line and didn't approve the tax credit reduction.

"We put it on the ballot and the people voted it down," he said. "We still have no revenue and we are asked again to go against the will of the people when I see departments increasing spending."

Page 2 of 2 - Lewis said he is observing obvious areas of increased spending.

"The bottom line is when you see budget lines increase $100,000 or $75,00 over a course of a few years, it is not fair," he said. "We are cutting from the increase, we need to get back to 2011 levels and it will be more reasonable. I'm not sure anyone is going to be listening."

In October, the city was declared to be in "fiscal emergency." At 2 p.m. today, city officials will meet with the city financial planning and supervision commission. This is the first meeting of the group that includes three people handpicked by Gov. John Kasich, Council President Tony Townsend and several state government officials.

Council is expected to revisit the budget at the Nov. 25 work session. The appropriations must be approved by the end of the year.